Mirogoj Cemetery

The Mirogoj City Cemetery (, ), also known as Mirogoj Cemetery (), is a cemetery park that is considered to be among the more noteworthy landmarks in the city of Zagreb. The cemetery inters members of all religious groups: Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish, Protestant, Latter Day Saints; irreligious graves can all be found. In the arcades are the last resting places of many famous Croats. Mirogoj has 60,000 graves and it’s a resting place of 322,000 people.

History

The Mirogoj Cemetery was built on a plot of land owned by the linguist Ljudevit Gaj, purchased by the city in 1872, after his death. Architect Hermann Bollé designed the main building. The new cemetery was inaugurated on 6 November 1876.

The construction of the arcades, the cupolas, and the church in the entryway was begun in 1879. Due to lack of funding, work was finished only in 1929.

Unlike the older cemeteries in Zagreb, which were church-owned, Mirogoj was owned by the city, and accepted burials from all religious backgrounds.

On 22 March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Zagreb was hit by a 5.5 magnitude earthquake that caused significant damage across the city, including to the famous arcades of the Mirogoj cemetery.

Notable interments

• Zlatko Baloković (1895–1965), violinist
• Milan Bandić (1955–2021), longest-serving mayor of Zagreb
• Ena Begović (1960–2000), actress
• Miroslav Blažević (1935–2023), football player and later manager
• Hermann Bollé (1845–1926), architect
• Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić (1874–1938), writer
• Ferdinand Budicki (1871–1951), automotive and air travel pioneer of Zagreb, introduced cars to the city
• KreÅ¡imir Ćosić (1948–1995), basketball player and coach, member of both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and FIBA Hall of Fame
• ToÅ¡o Dabac (1907–1970), photographer
• Arsen Dedić (1938–2015), singer-songwriter and composer
• Dimitrija Demeter (1811–1872), Greek–Croatian who played a major role in the movement for the national awakening of the Croatian nation
• Filip Deutsch (1828–1919), nobleman and industrialist
• Julio Deutsch (1859–1922), architect and co-owner of the architecture studio Hönigsberg & Deutsch
• Janko DraÅ¡ković (1770–1856), nobleman, national reformer, politician and poet
• Rajko Dujmić, songwriter and composer (1954–2020)
• Hugo Ehrlich (1879–1936), architect
• Aleksandar Ehrmann (1879–1965), industrialist, philanthropist and diplomat
• Ljudevit Gaj (1809–1872), co-founder of the Illyrian movement
• Leo Hönigsberg (1861–1911), architect and co-owner of the architecture studio Hönigsberg & Deutsch
• Hosea Jacobi (1841–1925), Chief Rabbi of Zagreb
• Miroslav Krleža (1893–1981), writer
• Oton Kučera (1857–1931), astronomer
• Zinka Kunc-Milanov (1906–1989), famous soprano
• Svetozar Kurepa (1929–2010), mathematician
• Ante Kovačić (1854–1889), writer
• Enver Čolaković (1913–1976), writer
• Vatroslav Lisinski (1819–1854), composer
• Vladko Maček (1879–1964), politician
• Savić Marković Å tedimlija (1906–1971), publicist
• Anđelka Martić (1924–2000), writer
• Antun Gustav MatoÅ¡ (1873–1914), writer
• Andrija Mohorovičić (1857–1936), seismologist
• Edo Murtić (1921–2005), painter
• Vladimir Nazor (1876–1949), writer
• Maximilian Njegovan (1858–1930), Commander-in-chief and admiral of the Austro-Hungarian Navy
• Slavoljub Eduard Penkala (1871–1922), inventor
• Dražen Petrović (1964–1993), basketball player, member of both the Naismith and FIBA Halls of Fame
• Milka Planinc (1924–2010), first and only female prime minister of Yugoslavia
• Vladimir Prelog (1906–1998), Nobel Prize-winning chemist
• Petar Preradović (1818–1872), poet
• Stjepan Radić (1871–1928), leader of the Croatian Peasants Party
• August Å enoa (1838–1881), writer
• Ivica Å erfezi (1935–2004), singer and politician supporter of Croatian Peasant Party
• Ivan Å ubaÅ¡ić (1892–1955), last Ban of Croatia
• Milka Ternina (1863–1941), famous soprano
• Franjo Tuđman (1922–1999), the first president of Croatia
• Vice Vukov (1936–2008), singer and politician
• Tin Ujević (1891–1955), poet
• Emil Uzelac (1867–1954), head of the Austro-Hungarian air force
• Ivan Zajc (1832–1914), composer

Memorials

• Monument to Fallen Croatian Soldiers in World War I (1919)
• Monument to the children from the Kozara mountain
• Tomb of the People's Heroes (1968)
• Memorial Cross to Croatian Home Guard Soldiers (1993)
• Monument to the Victims of Bleiburg and the Way of the Cross (1994)
• German military cemetery (1996) for more than 4.430 deaths
• Monument of the "Voice of Croatian Victims - Wall of Pain" (to Croatian victims of the Croatian War of Independence)

Location and access

It is located today in the Gornji Grad–Medveščak city district, on Mirogojska road and Hermann Bollé street.

ZET bus line 106 runs between the cemetery and the Kaptol bus terminal in the heart of Zagreb every 20 minutes during the cemetery's opening hours. A less frequent line, 203 (every 20–25 minutes), also starts from Kaptol by the same route, but continues further east to Svetice terminal, directly connecting to the Maksimir Park. Also, the line 226 goes by a similar route as the line 203, but goes through Remete. Also, it’s less frequent (every 35-40 minutes).

Gallery

See also

• History of Zagreb

References

Further reading

External links

• Mirogoj Cemetery at Association of Significant Cemeteries in Europe